ABSTRACT
THE quality of a school can be assessed in various ways. We may judge it by the proportion of its academic successes and the careers of its brilliant pupils, or by its general appearance and behaviour on public occasions. These are the criteria which the public tends to use. They are not, of course, the only criteria, nor necessarily the most reliable. The real character of a school community can be observed in the day-to-day contacts between the individuals and small groups of which it is constructed. The normal behaviour of teachers towards their classes and of pupils towards one another is of more importance in a child's life than the brief excitement of a public occasion when pupils and teachers are on show together, for the effects of day-to-day relationships are cumulative and lasting, whereas those of an isolated event may be only transitory. The rehabilitation of a problem child may be a greater community triumph than the award of an open scholarship, though it will have no spectacular finale and may pass unnoticed by the outside world.
